CAnada, CAlifornia, and a CAve

These images were originally published on a now-defunct Telegram channel and this blogpost has been backdated to be at the correct time in history. I've taken this opportunity to better select the images to share for telling the story and conveying the experience, and I've written much more explanation than I originally did when it was a late-night post to a Telegram channel after a long day.

In February of 2025 my girlfriend and I had a simple plan. We wanted to go to CAnada for a nice romantic weekend for Valentine's day (really an excuse to eat chicken tenders), and then a week later hit CAlifornia to see a John Mulaney show. Towards the end of the month we also explored a CAve in Yakima, WA. This wasn't part of the original plan but I took pictures that I want to share so it goes in the blogpost and we get a third CA. Overall we had a great time everywhere and we took some cool pictures and ate some tasty food.

CAnada

Canadian Food

The plan for the romantic getaway to Canada starts in Ireland. When we were in Dublin, we had a spice bag for the first time from an award-winning Chinese takeout restuarant. A spice bag is a Chinese food from ireland the same way that the fortune cookie is a Chinese food from the USA. It is prepared by stir frying chicken tenders and french fries in five-spice with onions and bell peppers, then tossing that into a paper bag and putting curry sauce into a little single-use cup. It is eaten by tearing the bag open, pouring the curry sauce on top of the food, and going to town with a fork. It is absolutely delicious, probably the best food that we had in Dublin.

When we got home, we looked high and low for somewhere that made a spice bag. After a few hours of searching online, we couldn't find a single restaurant in Washington, Oregon, or California that had it on the menu. Feeling something like the opposite of glee, we hung our heads and moved on with our lives. That is, until my gf found an Irish pub in British Columbia that had a "spice tray" on the menu. With border crossing, it was a drive that we could make in 1 day if we wanted to. So we did. Our first stop in Canada, before we even checked into our hotel, was at Donnellan's Irish Pub in Vancouver, BC.

We both ordered the spice bag. It was 100% legit (based on our memory of one late-night spice bag months prior) and delicious. They hit all the points that make a spice bag a spice bag (to my understanding). My only gripe was that the portion size was quite small, but that's probably because this was listed as an appetizer instead of an entree. They also had "Oklahoma style smash burgers" which was one of the better burgers I'd had in recent memory. Someone was talking recently about incorporating Canada into the USA. Their burger skills are high enough that maybe that could work. We shouldn't let them be a state though, maybe just a territory or something like Puerto Rico. Their journey to proper statehood should require more than just making good burgers (an admittedly American trait), but also things like winning the Super Bowl and landing on the moon.

This was really the main reason that we went up to Canada, but since it was close to Valentine's anyways we just made a whole weekend out of it.

We went to a place called Neverland Tea while we were in Vancouver. This is a "tea salon" and has earned a long mention here as well as my continued patronage every time that I go to Canada in the future. The tea here was fantastic. I'm a bit of a tea snob. This is exceedingly high praise. If you enjoy tea, this establishment receives the highest recommendation that I can give for a tea salon. I rate it 12 out of 10. The only other place that I know where I can reliably get tea this good is my own kitchen.

We had high tea at Fortnum & Mason's in London. The Queen of England started the high tea tradition at Fortnum & Mason's. They are widely regarded and praised as some of the best high tea that you can get in England, a country known for its love of tea. Neverland outdid Fortum & Mason's by leagues in the quality and preparation of both the tea and the food. All of this at 1/4 the cost.

The whole place was decorated in such a tasteful manner for Valentine's day. It is typically quite easy to go overboard with PINK and wind up being gaudy, but Neverland acheived an elegance that signaled thought and restraint. Their china was gorgeous and impeccable. For Valentine's day the salon had a special menu, which we opted for out of a selection of three. You need a reservation to get in here, and when we arrived the table that had been set aside for us had already been decorated to match the menu (and season). I'm used to arriving somewhere with a reservation and being seated at any open table. The waitress at Neverland knew exactly where we were to sit the moment that I told her my name. This intentionality in decor and table reservation betrays the thought that they put into everything.

The food was delightful. I'm running out of positive adjectives. Nearly everything on the tower of plates was somehow pink, and everything was delicious. The only complaint that either of us had was that the little triangular sandwiches on the bottom level weren't to our taste, though that is certainly just a matter of personal preference.

And just look at how beautifully everything is arranged. How elegant and subtle the decorations on the platters are. The way that the quiche is nestled between the finger sandwich and the roll. I loved it.

The most important thing at a tea salon (or anywhere that serves high tea) is the tea itself. Neverland has a sizeable selection, and you can see a full list of their flavors here. They serve blacks, greens, whites, oolongs, herbals, and even rooibos. I got a plain black and my gf got a scented black. Both were delightful. But most importantly they were prepared correctly. This is an embarassingly rare bit of good news and deserves some explanation.

China (and many Asian cultures) has a special tea ceremony method of tea preparation which I am not talking about here. That is its own thing outside the realm of Western tea. As far as Western tea traditions go, many people follow in the footsteps of the British and completely ruin their tea. A lot of people think that they don't like tea when in fact they just don't know how to make tea, and they would probably enjoy it if they tasted some that was correctly prepared.

The beverage that we call "tea" is made by taking dried tea leaves and placing them in hot water, a process called "steeping". The method of drying and processing determines which type of tea (green/black/white/oolong/puer) is created. These different types of tea (which are all made of leaves from tea plants) have different properties and flavor profiles. Additionally, there are herbal and rooibos teas which are technically not teas since they do not use leaves from the tea plant. Herbal "teas" are whatever dried herbs you want to steep and rooibos is a specific type of herbal tea using a specific African plant.

Since these are all different things, they behave differently when you expose them to hot water. The terpenes and tannins in each type of tea are released at different temperatures and at different steep-times. Many people (such as the British) place their tea (which in many cases is not tea) into tea bags in boiling water and leave them there for the entire time that it takes to consume the drink. This results in bitter tea because the tannins are over-extracted. Any tea can become bitter if you steep it at too high of a temp or for too long, but teas don't have to be bitter. Oblivious to this, most people (such as the British) add milk and sugar to their tea to offset this unpleasant bitter flavor, masking the flavor of the tea. This is an abomination.

Different types of teas deserve to have their appropriate temperaturees and times observed. Herbal tea is the most forgiving because it's not actually tea. Of the actual teas, black tea can take the harshest treatment and is generally not too bad if you use boiling water, but ideally it should be steeped at 200-210 F, not 212. The other teas are more delicate and will become bitter if you expose them to the same treatment that black tea can withstand. If you want to actually enjoy the tea flavor of your tea and you don't just want sweet milk, I implore you to follow the guidelines on the tea package.

Speaking of tea packages, the teabags that you can find at the store are typically terrible. Open one up and find that they do not appear to contain any tea leaves, but instead a dusty powder made of who-knows-what. Since you can't actually see the leaves, you have no indication that what you are looking at is leaves. It could well be twigs, dirt, bugs, or any manner of other nonsense additives. Given the profit motive of companies and the lack of care from the average consumer, I find it pretty likely that this is the case. Tea should be purchased loose leaf and it should actually be leaves.

Lastly, tea should not be steeped in a bag or a small infuser ball. The tea leaves need to fully unfurl in order to allow the water to permeate them and extract all of the delicious flavors, but keeping them locked up in a tiny enclosure does not allow them to do this. Instead it traps your tea leaves and prevents them from realizing their full potential. Those tea leaves spent a lot of energy growing and came a long distance to get into your cup. They deserve better than cramped quarters. For this reason I generally use an infuser basket, which allows my leaves to swim around a bit.

Fortnum & Mason's followed the British tradition of ruining perfectly good tea leaves. Neverland Tea Salon in Vancouver, BC got all of these points correct! The tea was all loose leaf. It was steeped at specific temperatures for specific amounts of time. See those little white pucks in front of the spheres? Those are timers to ensure that the tea leaves infuse the water for the correct amount of time. The tea is steeped loosely in these giant spheres, giving them plenty of space to unfurl and swim around. In fact they were even stirred to encourage this swimming behavior. When the timer went off, the barista (not sure if that is the right term for a tea salon) simply had to press on a lever, which allowed the tea to instantly flow out the bottom and into a cup. The bottom of the sphere's pedestal was fitted with a strainer to avoid getting particulate into the finished cup (which would continue steeping and make the product bitter).

I was absolutely floored when I saw this and I am still flabbergasted that it was done so well. Bravo, Neverland.

One night in Canada, we needed a meal (as you tend to do at night) but it was getting quite late and most everything was closed. What was open was mostly bars, which we weren't vibing with. After some searching around online, we found Donair & Sub House in Burnaby (a town near Vancouver). In the name and on the menu it implies that they have subs. I don't see a single thing that I would call a "sub" on their Google Maps pictures. What I can vouch for is their poutine. We got poutine here with lamb and tzatziki on top. It was reasonably priced, a huge portion, and delicious. It was so good that we went back a second time before leaving town. The staff were kind and the food was banging.

Overall the food in Vancouver was delightful. It is a huge draw for us to return. Vancouver's food rivals Portland's, and both blow Seattle out of the water.

The Fun

When I booked the hotel, I opted for a room with a jacuzzi. I did this because jacuzzis rock and it felt somewhat romantic for a Valentine's day weekend. By pure serendipity, we found ourselves at a Canadian supermarket and purchased some bubble bath solution. I've had bubble baths in regular bathtubs before and haven't felt like they were anything particularly special since I was a child. Oh cool there's some bubbles in the bath. They mostly get in the way. We put bubbles in the jacuzzi. When we turned on the jets, the bubbles took over. They didn't get in the way, they became the way. I was making mountains, skyscrapers, and suits of armor out of the bubbles. The bubbles overflowed the bathtub and got all over the place. I thought perhaps the world might be lost in a sea of bubbles. If you ever get the chance to take a bubble bath in a jacuzzi, I implore you to give it a shot.

While in Canada, we visited a comedy club that was putting on a show. We sat in the front row. My gf didn't want to sit in the front row because she didn't want to get picked on. I assured her that we would not get picked on. We got picked on. The comedians found out that we were Americans and made a few jokes about how we were most likely armed and how we were "some of the good ones" by being from Seattle. I think there may have been a few other politically-charged American jokes that flew over my head. Overall I had a great time and my gf wasn't miserable.

At one point we found ourselves in a bookstore. I thought to myself "I'll find an easy Spanish book to help me learn Spanish". I typed away at their little self-service kiosk and found the above pictured book listed as "available". I moseyed on over to General Fiction and couldn't find it, so I flagged down a clerk to give me a hand. Between the three of us, we checked 4 different sections (including the back room) before finally finding the book exactly where it was supposed to be. The three of us had independently completely overlooked it multiple times. The search took about 20 minutes, and at checkout I realized that the book was actually in English the whole time.

Here are some photos from the Metropolis mall in Vancouver. We only got a few shots but the interior was wonderfully designed to evoke its namesake. I think it did a pretty good job. The bathroom pictured is not from Metropolis, but it is somewhere in Vancouver. I find the chair in the corner facing the toilet to be puzzling. I don't think that it is there to serve as an ottoman. It appears to be a cuck chair in the bathroom. Perhaps Canadian culture was heavily influenced by Germany.

Some of the fun that we had was actually waiting in line at the border. The way up North was pretty uneventful and regular, but coming back down to the USA we had a ~3 hour long line. This would typically be abysmal, but we had a secret trick up our sleeves: Uno No Mercy. This is a special version of Uno with slightly changed rules to cause people to draw more cards and some new +6, +8, and +10 cards (among others that cause additional drawing too). One hand of No Mercy took most of our time at the border line.

We also got to see the mind-bending strange sight of Non-Sign II just on the US side of the border. It is the first piece of artwork that travelers see when coming into the US through this entrypoint, and its discontinuity leaves you pondering if you've lost your mind from boredom or if it was actually made like that (both can be true).

CAlifornia

The week after we got back from Canada, we made our way down to California. The main purpose of this trip was to see a John Mulaney show. However, cameras were not permitted at the show, with information to that effect in the ticket booking page, on signage at the venue, and verbally by the opener. This rule was flouted by the attendees, but I did not even bring my camera or take a single picture the whole time. Mulaney is a favorite comedian for me and my gf, and seeing him live was a treat. It seems like he is working on fleshing out new content, and a lot of what he ran through on stage was similar to his SNL opening and other recorded performances that he has done of late. Also, he had caught a cold but performed through it anyways. Sadly, he seemed a bit miserable while on stage. I hope he's feeling better.

Leaving WA

Before leaving for California we went to Snoqualmie Pass for pancakes at the recommendation of a friend. They were okay, pretty much just standard diner fare. You get the same pancakes somewhere like Shari's or IHOP. There was a LOT of snow hanging off of the roof and piled up all over the place. When we got to Cali it was 70 degrees and sunny, with no snow to be found. Elevation and latitude are wild.

We got to Seatac quite early because if you're not early you're late. Since I have a fancy Capital One card, we were able to get into the lounge in the S gates, and wow was it delightful. There were comfortable chairs, soft music, power outlets, and endless free food and drinks. I had never been to the lounge before and it was a nice experience. I'm glad to be able to visit places like this. However, C1 is changing their terms and I won't be able to bring guests into the lounge starting in 2026. The lounge is a significantly nicer place to hang out than the terminal where you're lucky to find an uncomfortable seat and it's loud and all the food is overpriced.

Lodging

Flights and show tickets and a rental car were expensive and I had just spent a bunch of money on a hotel in Canada. To keep costs low, I booked a cheap hotel in what I later learned was a sketchy area of town. It was quite scuffed and there were some interesting design decisions. There were these vines growing all over the place. The driveway was an intersection. And there were these speakers that were just playing classical music 24/7. Definitely not the worst place that we have ever stayed, but not somewhere that we would want to stay again.

When we got into our hotel, I smelled a familiar odor. It smelled faintly of maple syrup and ice, like the country that I had just come from. I followed my nose to track down the source of the odor and found it emenating from the desk in the room. It was held together with robertson #2 screws, an alternative to phillips that is popular and common in Canada. I found the smoking gun when a bilingual "Made in Canada" sticker was also on the underside of the desk. No Canadian can hide from me.

The hotel was old and run down. It hadn't been renovated in a long time. The aspect of this that I found most entertaining was the juxtaposition of a GIGAMAX ethernet port feeling the need to specify that it is not a "dial-up" connection and the unassuming power outlet with integrated USB-PD on a USB-C port.

Californian Food

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in California, eat avocado toast because you can't afford a home anyways. The venue was pretty cute and decorated in a millenial fashion. The food was decent and if you're feeling frisky there's a mega church right next door.

We had dinner at a ramen restaurant in Redlands. I have since been informed that Redlands in "not a great area", though it seemed clean enough to me. When we walked in, we were the only customers in the restaurant, which gave me a slight pause of concern. Usually if a place is good, it will have people in it. My anxiety was quickly alleviated however by the Yu-Gi-Oh was playing on the TV behind the cash register (muted) and the rattlecan artwork covered the walls featuring a...gang of dogs(?) and other equally surreal paintings. As the decor would insinuate, this bowl of ramen (I got the special) was the best that I had ever had. If you find yourself near Redlands, CA, you should for sure check this place out.

Another night for dinner we found ourselves at a combination Indonesian restaurant / grocery store called Java Bistro in a town named "Rancho Cucamonga". I had thought that the name of this town was just an exclamation like "Jumping Jehosephats" until I saw it on a sign in real life. I had never had Indonesian food before and I had never been at a restaurant that was also a grocery store. My GF got a noodle soup quite similar to ramen but with a pickled egg and cream cheese rangoons. I got a bunch of stuff wrapped up together in a banana leaf. Both of our dishes were actually really nice, though the meatball soup was skipable.

Long Beach

Aquarium

We went to California for a comedy show but we had more than just one day in the state. I took this opportunity to link up with a couple of old friends that I hadn't seen in many years. One of these good friends treated us to the Long Beach aquarium. This really became the highlight of the California trip and I remember it way better than the comedy show.

Taking pictures of fish in an aquarium is actually difficult becuase you're photographing dark things through an inch of dirty glass. As a result, all of these photos are blurry, poorly lit, noisy, and with a lot of chromatic aberration. Consider it part of the aesthetic.

Intellectually, I know that coral, starfish, and sea anenome are all technically considered "animals", but they are all serving major "plant" vibes. They move so slow and without any volition that they might as well be plants. None of them have brains and they can't fight predators. I feel like venus fly traps are closer to animals than these imposters who share a kingdom with us. I like the long stringy starfish. They look like they taste spicy.

The acquarium also had birds, which are definitely for sure animals. If starfish are technically animals then there should be a separate family of organisms called "actual animals" that can look around and make sounds. Birds are some of these "actual animals". These birds were (known for their work in the air) at an acquarium (known for water) because they are birds with a particular affinity for water. I assume that there were no ducks present because they aren't considered "novel" by most of the North American population. They should get some ducks. Some seagulls would also be fitting, since they have "sea" in the name and that's pretty wet.

Alright enough messing around. Acquariums are for fish. Everything else is tangential or just a way to boost ticket sales. Close your eyes and think of a water creature. You thought of a fish, don't lie. The Long Beach aquarium had a wide assortment of fish. They had colored fish, plain fish, fish with eyebrows, fish with fangs, long fish, vertical fish, and even forgetful fish. My favorite of these fish is the one in picture #4 above, who looks like he's popping up to say hi.

Almost but not quite fish, the aquarium also had giant swimming blankets, seals who had escaped the club, a disturbingly girthy eel, and one of those creatures who will teach us how to become immortal if we can just stop them from going extinct for a little while longer. Axlotls rock, and I had never seen one before.

Jellyfish are named fish but they're just barely more animal-like than a starfish. The only reason that jellyfish get ranked up in the animal spectrum is because they move on a timescale that you can notice if you just look at them for less than a bazillion hours. These jpegs are oriented in the direction that they were shot on my camera. The jellyfish were actually swimming sideways or upside down. I wonder what causes them to swim in different directions.

Octopi are very animals. Not only do they move around quickly (really super quickly in fact) and engage in combat, they're crazy smart. Octopi disassemble stuff and mess with people for fun. This octopus was trying to show me its butthole. I know that the suction cups of an octopus are supposed to be extremely painful, but they look quite soft.

I've been to aquariums that have water insects before, but I'd enver seen crabs that were this pokey. It looks really cool that they have so many horns and I hope that they're not just decorative but also used for useful purposes. Picture #3 above looks like a fake paper mache or plastic model of a crab, but I promise it was real. I saw it move around. Very animal.

Frogs I guess technically count as water animals, but only as much as birds do. Some of these frogs are poisonous which is crazy if you think about it. Just touch some slime and you get to die an agonizing death.

The Rest Of Long Beach

After leaving the aquarium, I walked around the rest of the immediate vicinity with my gf, my friend, and a couple of his kids. I took some pictures that I think are intriguing, though it's hard not to be intrigued by such captivating architecture. The last three pictures just so happen to have similar coloration to this very website, and they are also my favorite images from the bunch, likely in large part due to their colors.

My buddy told me that this area is where Formula One races happen from time to time, which threw me for a loop. Sometimes I forget that things like that are actually real and not just in videogames and movies. It's like seeing Big Ben for the first time. Yeah you've seen pictures and you might know that it's real in your brain, but you haven't actually been there and thought "yeah here it is".

Image #4 has a steak knife in a potted plant. Californians aren't allowed to have guns so they have to scatter melee weapons around the place just in case they find themselves in a self-defense situation.

There were a number of street vendors in the Long Beach area around the aquarium. It seemed like a sizeable tourist destination. The grey-market copyright-infringement booths fusing popular culture and poncho aesthetics seemed so odd to me. It didn't feel like real life. Southern California is a strange place.

A CAve

The final CA for this blogpost was a cave that we explored. Specifically it was Grafitti Cave in Yakima, WA. An outing like this typically isn't the kind of thing that I put in a travelogue, but I took some pics that I relaly like and I can put whatever I want on my blog since it's my blog. Also the name is better with a third CA.

Grafitti cave is in a nice area of highway 97 with plenty of parking, and the cave itself is easy to get to. It's named grafitti cave for two main reasons:

I understand that there is a certain "code of honor" among grafitti artists to not cover up something unless you are going to do better. At places like this though, it is easy to see that this rule is disregarded. I suspect that this is a result of locations like this being encourage for newbies, who do not have the respect for the art of others quite fully developed yet.

Here are a few of my favorite pieces from this exploration. MRSA is a sizeable name in the Seattle grafitti scene, so seeing them out here wasn't exactly a surprise but it was cool. I appreciate the color fading on Sonic's hair and the broken heart in the cracked pavement is very "wow this is deep" but I like it anyways.

Aside from the grafitti and the cave, this area of Washington is quite scenic and is worth looking at in its own right. I often have difficutly successfully communicating the scale of scenery and distance in photographs that I take, but I think that I did a good job of it in image #4 above. Perhaps the trick is to have a human form as reference, since our brains instinctively know how big a human is. In the final picture above I found a DOTCOM tag. DOTCOM was one of the most prolific Seattle artists who was busted when the police brought down MSP.

I also got to get some cool shots of my gf in the cave. I feel that these are "artsy". The final one is actually a trick of the light. I wanted it to look like her flash light was reflecting off the rocks and lighting her up. In reality, that is the last remaining rays of sunlight filtering through and illuminating the front of her body.

I promise that I really legitimately did not see this sign until we were on our way out. There are at least three entry points onto the trail that leads to the entrance of the grafitti cave, but only one had this sign. I'm sowwy mister government I promise I won't do it again :^)